Munich, in the heart of laid-back Bavaria, has a huge public park, family-friendly beer gardens, easy public transit and lots of excellent bakeries. It’s an easy European city to explore with kids.
Thanks to family connections, I’ve had the chance to visit the city a few times, one of them with an eager 4YO. Here are my family’s favorite things to do in Munich with a kid: some on the well-worn tourist track and some local favorites that visitors shouldn’t overlook.
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10+ Truly Memorable Things To Do in Munich With Kids
1. Start at the Marienplatz
The Marienplatz is the city’s central pedestrian zone with stores, cafés, beer halls and churches. There are often vendors selling a single fruit or vegetable. It will be whatever item is at its in-season peak and will be top quality. If it’s any kind of fruit, buy a container. Same if it’s a veggie and you have a place to cook.
Soccer fans will want to note that this is where FC Bayern celebrates its major victories.
• The Gothic neue rathaus (new city hall) at the center of the square really is new by European standards, built between 1870 and 1905. You can take an elevator to the top of its tower for a 360-degree view of Munich.
• At 11:00 and noon (and 5:00 pm May to October), stop in front of the Rathaus to see the Glockenspiel, which means playful clock.
Over the course of a few minutes, more than 30 figures act out the 1810 wedding of King Ludwig I, which gave Munich its famous Oktoberfest. The party includes dancing coopers and a joust (the Bavarian knight always wins). Our preschooler was captivated. After three visits to Munich, it still impresses me, despite having to see it through anti-pigeon netting.
• On a nearby corner of the square, look for a dragon hanging off the side of the building. The metal statue and stone frieze above it tell the tale of a dragon bringing plague and famine to Munich. The people defeat the dragon and celebrate after.
• Beneath the Rathaus you’ll find the Ratskeller, a wine cellar dating from the 1870s with frescoed vaulted ceilings, dark wood furniture and Gothic chandeliers.
On a cold, gray day, which is common even in summertime, it’s a cozy place to warm up with a bowl of soup. If you’re very hungry, order the roast pork, which Bavarians do exceptionally well. The interior courtyard is also a lovely lunch spot if you luck out with a sunny day.
• Around the Marienplatz, you’ll also find a tourist information center, St. Peter’s Gothic church, Ludwig Beck, a department store that dates to the 1860s and is known for its large music department, and the old town hall, which houses a toy museum (spielzeugmuseum).
The small museum doesn’t take long to see and has a treasure trove of Teddy bears, trains and wind-up toys, along with six decades of Barbie dolls.
• Take a short walk to from the Marienplatz to the FrauenKirche, the city’s main cathedral with its two distinctive onion-domed towers. It’s a plain but pretty church, which might not impress your kids much.
But kids do like looking for the “devil’s footprint” outside the main doors. And yours will be happy to join Munich children playing on the stones around the fountain that dominates the plaza in front. It’s often called the water-bell or water-mushroom fountain because of the tiny fountains in the middle of the water feature.
Look closely to notice that the two towers aren’t the same height, probably do the vagaries of building in the 16th century. You can climb one of the towers for more city views.
You can see all of these places and a few others as well on a good walking tour of the city.
2. Take a dip in Munich’s public pools
Munich has indoor and outdoor public pool complexes all over town. They are inexpensive, huge and amazing. Kids from toddlers to teens will find something to like at most of them. They provide a great break from sightseeing and a bit of insight into local Munich life.
Admission is a few euros, lockers are available and facilities are ultra-modern and clean. Bad or bade indicates a pool and a freibad is an outdoor pool.
The sprawling outdoor Prinzregentenbad has a stone wading area with sprinklers and a playground for small children, pools with slides and whirlpools for bigger kids and adults and a lap pool. Bring lunch or buy it there and picnic on the large lawn. We spent a delightful afternoon here.
Naturbad Maria Einsiedel is a similar complex near the zoo. The bracing Isar River feeds one of its pools; take a plunge if you have the fortitude.
If you catch a rainy day, head to the Cosimawellenbad. Kids come running to the main pool when a buzzer sounds, signaling waves are about to start rolling. Pre-swimmers have a wading pool with a slide. Grown-ups have an indoor/outdoor heated pool with spa jets and whirlpools. There are saunas elsewhere in the building for the grown-ups, too.
Tip: It’s not unusual for locker rooms to be co-ed. But there are comfortable changing rooms that lock and discretion is expected. It’s BYO for towels.
3. Explore Englischer Garten
Europe’s largest city park, the English Garden offers playgrounds, beer gardens, lakes, rivers and rambling wilderness. It’s a lovely place to romp, stroll, sun yourselves or take a bike ride.
Be sure to pass by the park entrance on Prinzregenten Strasse, near the art museum (Haus der Kunst). There are almost always wetsuit-clad surfers riding a rolling wave in the aptly-named Eisbach River. And its fun to see how long they stay standing.
The Chinese Tower is one of Munich’s most popular beer gardens. Located toward the southern end of the park, you’ll know it by its eponymous Chinese Tower. Families like it because of the playground and old-fashioned carousel right next to it.
It’s completely acceptable to bring your own picnic to a biergarten and buy drinks to go with it. You can also buy sausages, pretzels and roast chicken onsite. For dessert, you can buy sweet, made-to-order Palacinken (pancakes) Tiny Traveler liked watching them cook almost as much as she liked eating them.
Tip: The large coins you get with your beer represent the deposit you made on your glass. Be sure to return your glasses and retrieve your deposit.
Planning a Trip?
• Free breakfast is standard in German hotels. It’s usually ample and delicious. Don’t settle for a hotel where it isn’t offered.
• Rent a stylish, roomy apartment near the Marienplatz or Englisher Garten.
• Welcome Pickupss has affordable 4-hour personalized tours of Munich as well as airport service.
4. Play at the Deutsches Museum
Future engineers will love every inch of the Deutsches Museum, a sophisticated hands-on science and technology museum and planetarium. This is not your typical kid-centric science museum.
Teens and tweens will appreciate the main exhibits, which delve into any and every area of science that you can think of.
Take kids from ages 3-to-8 years old downstairs to Kids’ Kingdom, where they can play a giant guitar from the inside, run on a large hamster wheel, play with shadows and fly a helicopter with their feet. There are often STEM-themed craft projects, too.
It’s designed to allow parents to interact with the space alongside their kids. If you have multiple adults, you might want to take turns exploring the rest of the museum while your youngsters play. And good luck getting them to leave. We finally lured TIny Traveler out with the promise of ice cream.
5. King Ludwig’s Castles
King Ludwig II built elaborate castles all over Bavaria, Nymphenburg Palace, in a Munich suburb, was too baroque for my taste and will bore kids pretty quickly. It sits alongside a nice park with fountains and ponds that attract ducks. And the area around it has a different feel from central Munich.
Neuschwanstein Castle , the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty’s Disneyland castle, is what every kid imagines European castles look like. It’s a popular day trip and certainly doable.
But I think it’s worth an overnight stay, partly so you can enjoy Schwangau, the town below it, in the evening and early morning when it isn’t swarming with tour buses.
We’ve stayed at the Hotel Das Rübezahl both without and with a child and loved our stay both times. TIny Traveler was impressed by the fairy-tale-inspired mural above our bathtub and the kids’ menu that included schnitzel (breaded meat cutlets) and a “fancy” dish of ice cream for dessert.
Rich and I appreciated our large room with stellar views of the Alps and the sophisticated German food we had for dinner. We weren’t able to take advantage of the amazing saunas and steam rooms the hotel has on our stay with our child but we did use the small outdoor pool.
We also liked borrowing the hotel’s bikes (one with a kid’s seat) to get to and from the castle. Rich rode over early to get timed tickets, and we rode over together to join our tour later in the morning.
You have to see the castle via a guided tour. But there was plenty in each room, especially the murals, to keep Tiny Traveler engaged while we listened to the guide. The indoor cave was particularly exciting for the kids on the tour.
6. Other things to do in town
We don’t typically head to zoos and aquariums when we’re abroad, but Munich’s Hellabrunn Zoo, which opened in 1911, is well regarded.
The Sealife Aquarium, out by the Olympic Park, has a focus on sea creatures from local waterways.
We have yet to explore the Olympic Park because most of the attractions are better-suited to older kids. The parts that most appeal to tourists are undergoing a make-over through at least 2026. But if you go to the aquarium you can take a peak at the Olympic Stadium, play mini-golf, or take SUPS, kayaks or pedalboats out on the lake. In the summer there’s a beer garden by the lake, of course.
More Great Places To Eat in Munich With Kids
7. Coffee & Cake
Germans love their sweets, and it’s usual to take time out for a baked treat in the afternoon to tide them over until a late dinner. There are plenty of places around the Marienplatz to indulge in Linzer-torte cookies, marzipan-laden pastries and the seasonal-fruit-topped sheet cakes the locals favor.
My favorite of these cakes, which are called dachi or schnitten, has a rich-but-not sweet pastry cream and a thick layer of poppy seeds.
Stop into any bakery where the items in the window look good. Look for the classic but casual Café Rischart, which has a few locations. With kids old enough to appreciate something more stylish, head to DallMayr’s, a famous fancy food store with an upstairs café that serves its own coffees, teas and cakes, as well as pots of hot cocoa that come in dark, milk or white chocolate.
8. The Viktualienmarkt
At this large outdoor market with its central Maypole, you can buy ready-made sausages and sandwiches from prepared-food stalls or put an impromptu picnic together with cold cuts, seafood, cheese, bread and fruit from local purveyors.
There are also informal cafés where you can sit and eat, if you can snag a table. We like to have lunch at Fisch Witte. The fresh seafood is light and provides a nice change from sausage and pork.
In spring and summer, look for local products like raspberries, currants and gooseberries. In late summer you might see fresh chanterelle mushrooms.
Tiny Traveler was drawn to the Turkish delight, sold by the piece in a dozen bright colors and flavors. Fresh Turkish delight has intense fruit flavors and is softly chewy. It’s delicious. Our tot chose raspberry and loved it.
A guided food tour of the market is a good way to ensure you don’t miss anything yummy.
Tip: The Maypole in the center of the market is a handy landmarket for meeting up with people.
9. Beer Halls
Beer halls come in all sizes, from enormous to snug. Try the cozy Glöckl Am Dom, near the cathedral, known for tiny bratwurst served with fresh horseradish.
Schneider Weisse, famous for its mild white sausages (weisswurst) served with wheat beer, is a Munich must. Kids find the mild white sausages less intimidating than some other wurst, and they always come with fresh, warm pretzels.
The Hofbrau House is the most famous beer hall and garden and can be a bit rowdy when there are large groups. But it’s a nice space with live music and good traditional Bavarian food. Go for for an early dinner and it’s quite enjoyable.
10. All the Beer Gardens
Like the English Garden, almost every park has a beer garden, and they usually have playgrounds and other amusements for kids in view of the tables. Their cafeteria-style service is budget-friendly and they tend to have simple food that kids like.
Most German beer is low in alcohol, especially the helles, which is a very light pilsner, and tangy wheat beers (weissbier). If you want something especially refreshing, order a rädler, which is beer mixed with fizzy lemonade.
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